Pergolas, Arbours & Arches: Their History And How To Make Them

Katherine Swift & Paul Edwards

Editions

Review

Currently in vogue in smart horticultural circles and to be viewed in every other gardening magazine, is the living willow arbour, but the tradition of the arched trellis covered in vines or other climbing plants can be traced to Antiquity and found in literary sources, wall paintings and mosaics of the period.

Authors Paul Edwards and Katherine Smith have drafted in other garden historians to write about specific periods: Sylvia Landsberg on Medieval pergolas, JanWoudstra on their significance in the formal layouts of the 17th Century, while Robin Whalley informs us about Victorian Rose gardens and the great era of Arts and Crafts when skilled practitioners such as Harold Peto took the whole concept to new heights, by which, of course ,I mean new lengths.

At a more practical level, Mr Edwards looks at six designs of his own with drawings and information on construction and planting.  No instant TV makeovers here, thank goodness, but a historical context for serious, long-term garden features.

The photographs are ravishing and inspirational, though few of us today, I fear would tackle the great Laburnum tunnel at Bodnant.  Pity! - review by Stewart Grimshaw